“The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of ‘liberalism’ they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.”

Socialist Party presidential candidate Norman Thomas

Sunday, June 01, 2014

Yesterday was National Dam Safety Awareness Day.....who knew?

I'm sure you all didn't forget to recognize this very important day.....it really should be a federal holiday.....May 31st is National Dam Safety Awareness Day, an event that commemorates the tragic failure of the South Fork Dam in Johnstown, Penn. Although not a USACE constructed dam, the May 31, 1889 dam failure resulted in the loss of more than 2,200 lives and was the worst dam failure in the history of the United States.Lot's of bad things happened in the 1800's. Do we need a day of observance for them all? And what are we supposed to do on dam safety day, perform a visual inspection of the dam nearest us, and stick our fingers in any wet cracks? Heh heh, I said, "stick our fingers in any wet cracks".Here's the Jones Bluff Lock and Dam down around Selma. Maybe I'll take the wife on down there and we'll have BBQ sandwiches after we inspect it.

6 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Very funny...an inane comment to those who have lost their lives because of irresponsible owners. The purpose of this day is to remind policy makers, owners, and people living below these kinds of structures that unsafe dams can kill. Most peope living along rivers don't have a clue what's upstream.

Ed: How about almost 2000 since 1889, including almost a thousand in the 70s. Last kill was in Hawaii about 6 or 7 years ago. There would be thousands of other deaths if not for owner awareness and responsibility for almost 90,000 dams over 25 ft high in the U.S. 100's of thousands more smaller dams are not regulated. Better watch what's coming down the river! Hope you don't live in Alabama, the only state that doesn't regulate its dams.

Heh heh, that's precisely where I live, though not beneath a dam. I haven't heard of dams around the country falling apart, flooding cities, killing people by the thousands, and causing massive power shortages. Are you sure you're not including beaver dams in your stats?

You're a funny guy, Ed, heh, heh. Maybe you need to crawl out from under your rock and look around. You might learn something! Or does that scare you? I pray that you or your family never have to suffer from a dam failure while you boat , fish or use your waterways down there.